John David Bosch: In the Vanguard of Heroes, Martyrs, and Saints

Bahá’í Publishing, Wilmette, Illinois 401 Greenleaf Ave, Wilmette, Illinois 60091 Copyright © 2019 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States All rights reserved. Published 2019 Printed in the United States of America ∞ 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 ISBN 978-1-61851-150-8

Cover design by Carlos Esparza Book design by Patrick Falso Photos courtesy of National Bahá’í Archives, United States

Contents Note to the Reader........................................................................... xi Introduction.....................................................................................xv 1 / On a Train................................................................................... 1 2 / Become as True Brethren........................................................... 19 3 / I Have Traveled 8,000 Miles to See You..................................... 63 4 / Louise.........................................................................................81 5 / Awakened by the Tablets of the Divine Plan........................... 97 6 / Tahiti........................................................................................113 7 / ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is in the Utmost Longing to See You................... 145 8 / An Indefatigable Trio............................................................... 183 9 / Not Alone of the Mind, but of the Depths of the Heart...........221 10 / Your Milly.............................................................................. 275 11 / Saints..................................................................................... 293 Notes.............................................................................................331 Bibliography.................................................................................. 353 Photos of John Bosch.................................................................... 358

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Introduction Marzieh Gail, outstanding scholar and author, began an early manuscript of John Bosch’s life just before his passing in 1946. In that manuscript, Marzieh wrote, “The material we give here consists of conversations with John at Geyserville, written down as he spoke, and of documented information supplied by him and Louise, often copied in their presence, in preparation for a biographical account which they desired me to write and which is currently on file in the archives of the National Spiritual Assembly of Switzerland.” Marzieh never published a full biography, although excerpts of her early manuscript were published in Bahá’í News in 1974. Her wish that the manuscript be in the care of the Swiss Bahá’í Archives was her way of ensuring that John’s memory be associated with Switzerland, the land of his birth. In fact, at the end of John’s life, Rúhíyyih Khánum wrote on behalf of the Guardian to Mrs. E. C. Newell (John Bosch’s home-nurse during the final days of his life): “‘No doubt, when the Cause spreads more throughout Switzerland, this fatherland of his will grow to be proud of this heroic and noble soul it produced; even though the best days of his life were spent in America.

The influence of such a pure spirit grows as time goes by and he wishes you to assure Mrs. Bosch that the services she and her husband have rendered the Faith are very great and very deeply valued by him.’”* * Rúhíyyih Khánum, quoted in Marzieh Gail, “For John, With Love,” Bahá’í News (July 1974): 9–21. xv

INTRODUCTION

Marzieh Gail’s original manuscript is the foundation of this biography. To describe Marzieh as a remarkable person is an understatement. She was the child of Dr. Alí Kulí Khán and Florence Breed, and she saw herself as neither Persian nor American but as a citizen of the world. She was highly educated and has been characterized as the “patron saint of women Bahá’í scholars, always conscious of her audience, unveiling the Cause in her books and essays, lectures and talks.”* Her early research on the life of John Bosch is aimed at unveiling a wide range of Bahá’í subjects that would be of interest to someone learning about the Bahá’í Faith. Furthermore, reading the story of John Bosch’s life is an illustration of how teaching the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh can become “the dominating passion”** of one’s life.

Although it is difficult to separate the story of John Bosch from that of his wife Louise, Marzieh places John at the center of the narrative, and I have approached this biography in the same fashion. In learning about John Bosch, one also learns about Louise and the remarkable Bahá’ís associated with them. They were ordinary people who achieved extraordinary things in their desire to be of service to humanity.

The central aim of John Bosch’s life was to put into form and action the high standards of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, and one way to accomplish this was through Bahá’í summer schools. John and Louise donated their Geyserville property to be used as a place for the training of teachers for the Cause. The Geyserville Bahá’í School’s first season began in 1927 and continued until 1971, when it had to be closed in order to make way for the State of California’s expansion of the Redwood Highway, which ran across the Geyserville property.

When the Geyserville Bahá’í School was relocated to its new campus of sixty-eight acres of redwood forest in Santa Cruz, California, more * Constance M. Chen, “Obituary: Marzieh Nabil Carpenter Gail (1908– 1993),” Bahá’í Studies Review, vol. 6 (1994). http://bahai-library.com/chen_marzieh_gail_obituary (accessed April 23, 2014). ** The Universal House of Justice, letter dated January 9, 2011 to the Continental Board of Counselors. xvi

INTRODUCTION

than four hundred people attended the dedication of the new campus on July 13, 1974, and it was renamed the John and Louise Bosch Bahá’í School. The keynote speakers were Hand of the Cause of God Mr. William Sears, member of the Universal House of Justice Amos Gibson, and members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States Miss Charlotte Linfoot and Dr. Firuz Kazemzadeh. Marzieh Gail was there, and she noted Professor Kazemzadeh’s observation about the history of the John and Louise Bosch Bahá’í School and the early expansion of the Bahá’í Faith in America: This Bahá’í sense of history is an important element in the way Bahá’ís see the world. We talk about progressive revelation, which is actually an historic view of revelation. We believe in newness, in progress; but we also believe in continuity. We do not believe that the new Faith abolishes the Faith of the past; we believe that it fulfills the Faith of the past. We believe that in order to succeed today, one must have laid a firm foundation yesterday. We know that all time is a chain stretching from yesterday until tomorrow.

And so today is appropriate for us to take a look back at the origins of the John and Louise Bosch Bahá’í School.* When John Bosch was forty-eight years old, he learned of Bahá’u’lláh and His teachings of the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, and the oneness of the human race. The year was 1903, and Bahá’u’lláh had ascended more than a decade before, but His son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was alive in the world, and John Bosch was determined to meet Him. This is the story of John Bosch’s spiritual life which began with how he came to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

* Marzieh Gail, “For John, With Love,” Bahá’í News, (July 1974): 9–21. xvii

1 / On a Train It was an autumn sunset in October of 1903, and John Bosch was heading home after a business trip to the city. He boarded the train from San Francisco to Cloverdale, a town in Sonoma County eightyfive miles north of San Francisco. As he made his way to an open seat, he spotted a friend he knew from a Theosophical Society meeting he attended and took the seat next to her. Little did he know that this chance encounter would change the course of his life.

John David Bosch was a successful winery superintendent living in Sonoma County. Born in 1855, he was now forty-eight years old, and having apprenticed as a wine-maker in Germany and in Spain, his experience was valuable to the California wine industry at the turn of the century. An immigrant from Switzerland in 1879, he had moved to Nebraska with his sister’s family, the Zuberbuhlers. Some years later he traveled west to California and became a U.S. citizen in Los Angeles in 1887. Shortly after, he moved to Sonoma County, where grapes ripened well in the California sun. In October of 1901, John purchased forty-five acres of land in Geyserville, California that would not only be his home until his death in 1946, but would feel like home to hundreds and hundreds of Bahá’ís in the future.

In that same autumn of 1903, a book called The Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi was first published in the United States. The author of the book, Myron H. Phelps, was an American who had traveled to

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Palestine to meet ‘Abbás Effendi, known as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son and appointed successor of Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith.

Myron Phelps was one of the first Americans to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and was one of the first of the early Western observers to publish impressions of Him.1 When John Bosch took his seat on the train, his friend was reading Phelps’s book. John Bosch recounted the meeting in this way: In 1903, October, on the train from San Francisco to Cloverdale, a Mrs. Beckwith had a book with her called “Abbas Effendi” and I asked her if I could look over it and she permitted it and after reading a few pages I asked her where I could obtain one as I felt strongly that I should read the whole book.

It was the early Edition of “Abbas Effendi” by Phelps. Mrs. Beckwith said that you go and call on Mrs. Goodall in Oakland and that I could buy a book from her. Mrs. Beckwith said to me before going into this, that to hear of this is the greatest privilege, but it will be followed up by the greatest obligations and better not know it if you cannot follow it.

I called on Mrs. Helen Goodall early in 1904 on Jackson Street in Oakland and she gave me the first inspiring words and explanations of the Bab, Baha’u’llah, and Abdul Baha.2 John Bosch’s initial response to the book Abbas Effendi is telling of his spiritual receptivity to Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings of the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, and the oneness of humanity. John described his new understanding of how religious truth is given to humanity through progressive revelation from God: “In this book I found that in reality we have only one God and one truth. Why all the differences then? I learned that most of the present creeds were made up by the minds of some men. Statesmen and Ministers have tried to give us a new concept of the Books of the prophecies, forgetting to tell us that the foundation of all religion is one.”3 2